5 years and almost died!
I guess I jinxed myself with my 5 year anniversary post!
I had my 5 year anniversary and posted that "I am alive!" in reference to the joke that people don't live past 5 years. Then the next day, life decided to throw me a curveball.
My appendix decided to burst!!!! Oh man... I have had a lot of surgeries and stuff but this was the worst!
My 5 year anniversary was on November 10th and my appendix decided to burst on Friday the 11th. I had been feeling some pain in my stomach and my stomach was swelling up. The stomach virus/flu has been going around and I hadn't had it since my WLS in 5 years so I thought it was just a bad virus. I just felt that something "else" was up and couldn't figure it out. I went to the emergency room Friday night downtown. I told them immediately that I had WLS 5 years ago in case I passed out or something. All of a sudden they acted like they didn't want to deal with me because they always automatically think something has gone wrong with my surgery. They pumped me up full of pain meds and sent me home saying I had a stomach virus. So.. I went home... with a burst appendix.
I wasn't doing better at all.. in fact I got worse. I went to the emergency room at St. Joe East (they do bariatric surgeries) and I told them to page a bariatric surgeon. Luckily Dr. Greenlee was on-call and he came in. He mashed around on my stomach which was really swollen and distended. He said that the stomach flu is definitely going around but with my white blood cell count over 20,000 he knew something was up. He told me that he would operate on me as kind of an "exploratory" but he suspected my appendix. My pain was in the center of my stomach and not on my side which was throwing everyone off.
Even near death I mustered up one last request. "Please don't open me up. I had all that extensive reconstructive surgery so if there is anyway you can go through the old lap incisions, please do." I guess that was kind of a vain and stupid request since I could have died but when you spend that much money on something, you don't want to do it again! He promised he would try with the backup statement that it could go open at any minute. That was fine with me. Well he was successful in going through my old lap ports from WLS and he went through my scar at my hairline from the tummy tuck. I ended up with several staples and then I had a dreaded drain put in. Ugh....
Let me tell you, I was in the hospital for a week and then a week recovery at home. Today is my first day back at work and we are off tomorrow and Friday. All my other surgeries I bounced back from in 3 days. This was the WORST surgery I ever had and the toughest to recover from. I have a pretty high tolerance to pain too!
Oh... when he got in there, he did find that I had a huge "open space" in the Mesentary area. He said the old way they did the surgeries caused that and he fixed it up and anchored everything down so my guts didn't move around so "freely" that could cause a kink. So I had double surgery in a way.
I still want my thighs done but thats enough surgeries for a while!!!! Now I feel like 2 weeks of my life is missing and it's already thanksgiving! I know I am thankful to be alive and I missed coming here and reading posts!
I know David posted for me but I am not sure what all he said.
You just never know when something is going to happen to throw your life in a tailspin!
The doctor said that I was lucky that in those 3 days it was bursting, I didn't get sepsis/infection or die. Life is short.. make every minute count!
I owe everything to Dr. Greenlee!!! I am so glad they adopted this "orphan" from Texas.
Hugs to all!
Dana
Wow Dana, how scary! I'm so glad to hear that you came through it ok and that everything seems to be fine now. Thank goodness you went to St. Joeseph East and that one of the great WLS surgeons at our clinic was able to take care of you. This just once again reaffirms the fact that I am convinced I made the right decision going there!
Good luck to you!
Rhonna
Most Active
Recent Topics
